WASHINGTON — The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and Colorado Democrats have stopped a radical recall effort against state Representative Tom Sullivan before Republicans and an extreme gun group were able to place it on the ballot.
Sullivan ran for office for the first time after losing his son in the 2012 Aurora shooting. He followed through on a campaign pledge to pass common-sense gun safety — which led the state GOP’s vice-chair and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners to begin the recall effort.
“Colorado’s extreme Republicans wanted to recall Representative Tom Sullivan because he followed through on his campaign promises — and they quickly learned what a dumb reason that is for a recall,” said Jessica Post, executive director of the DLCC. “Representative Sullivan passed common-sense gun safety legislation and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee was proud to help defend him against this undemocratic abuse of the state’s recall system.”
Leveraging expertise learned from similar recall efforts in Nevada, the DLCC invested almost $100,000 to stop the recall and organized a grassroots program that knocked on more than 15,000 doors in HD-37 — stopping the recall campaign in its tracks.
The recall effort has thrown Colorado Republicans into chaos. House Minority Leader Patrick Neville’s political machine joined the campaign while others denounced the radical recall. Former Republican Representative Cole Wist, who lost his seat last year to Sullivan, said he did not support efforts to recall Sullivan over the recently passed red-flag bill, and Tyler Sandberg, a Republican strategist, said the recall would cost Republicans the seat in 2020.
“Colorado Republicans are out of touch and no recall campaigns can change that,” Post said. “Democrats are going to hold control of the General Assembly through any recalls and in 2020 because we’re focused on the real issues Coloradans care about.”
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